All my bad luck started when I was 15, but I had shown symptoms of Crohns disease since I was about age 8. I had the stomach pains, horrible leg and joint pains, and alot of flu like symptoms. When I was 9 my doctor sent me for blood work to chech for arthritis. Everything came back normal, so he said it was just pottasium deficiency and put me on tablets you dissolve in water and drink 2 times a day. Off and on I would get sick and better, sick and better. I would have bouts of vomiting, and diarrhea. I was never under weight, and these symptoms seemed to never get in the way of me being a normal active child. I just always felt different than everyone else at school, and never fit it. It was like I knew there was something about me that wasn't the same as everyone else. But I went on and grew up, putting up with the occasional sickness I would have. Life was great!
What I think caused my 1st
flare-up before I was ever diagnosed
The summer of 95 was a great summer, till I got sick. I went to the YMCA swimming pool everyday to swim. I was in great physical shape and was very active as a 14 year old. One day while I was at the swimming pool I was jumping off of the diving board, and I hit the water at an odd angle. My tailbone had struck the water and went into spasms. My legs went numb and I felt paralyzed from the waist down!! I couldn't even feel them, and I was in the deep end of the pool. Some how I managed to make it to the side of the pool where I waited till the feeling came back in my legs. I got out of the pool and the pain was terrifying! I think this is what really flared my Crohns up for the first time. I could barely walk. Every little movement in my body made my lower back spasm. I was crying, and I called my mom on the phone and told her to come and pick me up. I gathered my things up and went outside to wait on her to get there. While I was waiting I started having even more intense pain. I started to see black infront of me so I grabbed ahold of the nearest thing- A huge tree. Thankfully I didn't go unconcious. My mom arrived a few minutes later. For the next 3 months I would sleep on the couch in the living room with the middle cushion removed so that when I was laying down nothing was touching my lower back. I went to the doctor a few times and he said that I had a prominent tail bone. He instructed me to sit on pillows, and avoid hard surfaces. Eventually the pain got better...
Then the following December disaster would strike...
